Manager, Fan and Soccer Community Experiences

Description

U.S. Soccer Overview

The U.S. Soccer Federation exists in service to soccer. Our aim is to ignite a national passion for the game. Because we believe that soccer is more than a sport; it is a force for good.

We understand the importance and the power of teamwork, on and off the pitch. That is why we work closely with our Federation partners and members, to inspire, support and guide every level of the game: from the grassroots to the National Teams. We want to bring soccer into every home and every community, right across America. Because we believe that soccer can transform lives like no other sport. Soccer can represent the best of U.S.

U.S. Soccer is in a period of significant growth, with ambitious plans for U.S. Soccer in the near and far future. We are, therefore, looking for dynamic servant leaders to join us on this journey: in service to soccer. Applicants must be able to demonstrate visionary leadership, analytical decision-making, professional flexibility, and an empathic management style that builds bold teams and delivers globally significant results.

Position Description

As soccer becomes one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States, the Manager, Fan and Soccer Community Experiences owns how it feels to be a U.S. Soccer fan — whether this is at matches, special events or digitally. At U.S. Soccer, we work across a range of audiences across the whole soccer community including coaches, players and referees, families, members and clubs who we consider all to be fans

This is a strategic role with three connected mandates. First, it sets the creative and operational standard for national team matchday experience. Second, it builds the programming slate for U.S. Soccer’s tentpole and special event moments — including for big tournaments including World Cup, SheBelieves Cup, Gold Cup or at U.S. Soccer international matches and marquee cultural moments that sit alongside them. Third, and cutting across both, it merges the physical and the digital so that any experience is not a one-day footprint but a connected fan journey: discovered on social, deepened on-site, extended through content, and measured end to end.

This role is a builder of repeatable systems as much as a producer of individual events. It defines the experience framework, playbooks, and quality bar that a growing team, a national vendor base, and a multi-city event calendar can execute against consistently — turning passion for the national teams into durable, measurable fandom.

What Success Looks Like

In year one, this role establishes a defined U.S. Soccer fan and soccer community experience strategy and standard applied consistently across every match and tentpole event; delivers a programming calendar that is planned in advance rather than assembled match to match; and demonstrates, with data, that integrated physical-plus-digital experiences outperform standalone ones on reach, relevancy and revenue.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy, Vision & Experience Standards

• Own and evolve U.S. Soccer’s fan and soccer community experience strategy across matchday, tentpole, and special event moments, with a focus on emotional resonance, lifelong fandom, and brand affinity.
• Define the multi-year experiential roadmap and the annual programming calendar, aligning it to business goals and audience expectations.
• Establish the U.S. Soccer fan and community experience standard — the creative principles, quality bar, and brand guardrails that govern every fan-facing footprint — and build the playbooks that make it repeatable at scale.
• Serve as an internal and external thought leader on fan and soccer community experiences, representing the discipline with senior stakeholders, partners, host committees, and industry forums.

Matchday Experience

• Lead the strategy, programming, and execution of all national team matchday experiences, including Block Party, Fan HQ, pre-match fan zones, in-stadium moments, gate giveaways, and thematic experience zones, and how to bring in the wider soccer community.
• Design the full matchday experiences arc — from the night-before fan party and Block Party through arrival, in-bowl experience, and post-match extension — as a single, intentional journey rather than a set of separate experiences.
• Champion theme nights and culturally led initiatives that reflect organizational values, celebrate the diversity of the American soccer fanbase, and deepen inclusion.
• Partner with Partnership Marketing to shape and deliver thematic partner experiences, ensuring commercial integrations enhance rather than interrupt the fan experience and meet best-in-class on-site execution standards.
• Set venue and host-city experience requirements in partnership with Events, Production, Ticketing, and Security, and hold vendors and internal teams to them.

Tentpole & Special Event Programming

• Build and own the programming slate for U.S. Soccer’s tentpole moments across major tournaments — World Cup, SheBelieves Cup, Gold Cup, and other marquee competitions and milestone events.
• Program these moments as content and culture, not just logistics: curate talent, music, food, art, community, creator, and legend-led components that give each event a distinct identity and a reason to attend.
• Develop repeatable event formats and franchises — watch parties, fan fests, community celebrations, supporter takeovers — that can travel across markets and scale year over year.
• Lead programming for milestone and special events including grassroots and community moments, tied to national team activity and Federation priorities.
• Build multi-market and multi-year plans for major competitions, coordinating with host committees, venues, civic organizations, and local partners well ahead of event windows.

Integrated Physical + Digital Fan Experience

• Own the connection between physical and digital experience: ensure every experience is designed from the outset with a content, social, and data capture plan, not amplified after the fact.
• Partner with Social, Content, Digital Product, and Communications to build always-on and moment-driven programming that reaches fans who cannot attend in person and converts them into attendees over time.
• Direct the design of on-site digital touchpoints — app-driven experiences, activations built for capture and sharing, second-screen and in-venue content moments, and registration or data-capture mechanics that feed the fan database.
• Work with Growth, Lifecycle Marketing, Insiders and other Federation teams to define and deliver a personalized fan journey across live, digital, and community platforms, ensuring experiential moments are triggers within the broader lifecycle rather than isolated events.
• Partner with Ticketing and Growth Marketing to connect experience programming to attendance, membership, and revenue outcomes.

Partnerships, Supporters & Community

• Cultivate relationships with supporter groups, vendors, civic organizations, and cultural partners to co-create experiences rooted in authenticity and local relevance.
• Lead cross-departmental coordination with Events, Production, Ticketing, Consumer Products, Community Relations, Media Partnerships, Communications, and Brand to ensure alignment, consistency, and excellence in execution.
• Manage agency and vendor relationships end to end, including scoping, selection, briefing, and performance management.

Insights, Measurement & Optimization

• Establish the KPI framework for fan experience — spanning attendance, sentiment, dwell time, digital reach and engagement, data capture, and downstream ticketing and membership impact — and report against it to senior stakeholders.
• Partner with the Insights team to analyze fan sentiment, survey feedback, and social performance, and translate findings into concrete changes to programming and design.
• Run a disciplined test-and-learn approach, piloting new formats and retiring those that do not perform.

Team Leadership, Budget & Operational Excellence

• Manage, coach, and develop the Fan Engagement Coordinator, setting clear priorities and creating room for that role to own workstreams independently.
• Build and lead extended matchday and event teams, including seasonal staff, agency partners, and cross-functional working groups.
• Own the fan experience budget end to end — planning, allocation, tracking, and reconciliation — ensuring resources are directed to the highest-impact moments and delivered on time and on budget.
• Stay at the forefront of industry innovation in fan experience, live entertainment, and experiential technology, bringing forward ideas that keep U.S. Soccer at the leading edge.

Requirements

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Sports Management, Business, or a related field.
• 6–8+ years of progressive experience in fan experience, experiential marketing, live events, or brand experience within sports, entertainment, or consumer-facing industries.
• Direct people management experience, including coaching and developing junior staff.
• Proven experience designing and delivering high-impact experiential programs at national scale, including large-scale or multi-market events.
• Demonstrated fluency across physical and digital experience — able to brief a content and social team as credibly as a production vendor, and to design experiences for both on-site impact and digital reach.
• Experience programming events as content: curating talent, cultural partners, and creative components, not only managing logistics.
• Track record of owning and managing significant event budgets.
• Comfort using data and fan insight to set strategy, prioritize investment, and evaluate performance.
• Exceptional cross-functional collaboration, communication, and executive presence.
• Ability to lead multiple complex initiatives simultaneously in a high-performance, fast-paced environment.
• Must be able to connect “micro” details to the “macro” vision and mission.
• Proficient experience with Microsoft Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook)Flexibility to work non-traditional hours, including evenings, weekends, and holidays. 
• Ability to travel approximately 40–50% annually, concentrated in match windows and tentpole event periods.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience in international soccer, major league sports, music or live entertainment, or global event production.
• Experience delivering fan experience programs for a large-scale event or major tournament.
• Expertise in data-driven marketing, loyalty strategy, or direct-to-consumer fan experience design.
• Bilingual or multicultural fluency to engage diverse audiences.

U.S. Soccer offers a comprehensive compensation package, casual work environment, an inclusive culture, and an atmosphere for professional development.

U.S. Soccer is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, citizenship, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, genetic information, military status, political belief, or any other characteristic protected under the law. This policy applies to all our employment practices within our organization. We strongly encourage women, people of color, LGBTQIA, veterans, parents, and persons with disabilities to apply.